Standings

The graphics next to each team are called “sparklines.” They depict each team’s performance over the last month. Each “up” bar is a victory and a “down” bar is a loss. There are horizontal lines for home games and gray bars represent games decided by two runs or less. “PWins” is short for Projected Wins, based on each team’s Run Differential, and is often a better measure of a team’s true strength.

Game of the Day

The Red Sox beat the Phillies in a topsy-turvy, 12-inning game, 8-7. Boston first scored six runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 6-0 lead, then Philadelphia scored five in the seventh and Chase Utley hit a ninth-inning home run off the Fenway foul pole to tie the game in the ninth.

Jimmy Rollins, who had hit a key three-run triple in the seventh, put the Phillies ahead with an RBI double in the twelfth, but the Red Sox won in the bottom of the inning on a Loretta double and run-scoring singles by Youkilis and Ortiz. Ortiz had also hit a walkoff home run in the last Red Sox game on Saturday. According to Elias, he is the second player with game-ending RBI in consecutive games this season; Nomar Garciaparra did it May 5-6 vs. Brewers. No Red Sox player has done that since Butch Hobson against the Angels on August 27-28, 1978.

Yesterday’s Home Runs

The following stats are provided by Hit Tracker, which logs the projected distance of each home run (if it were to land uninterrupted at field level) and its “standard” distance, which is corrected for weather conditions.

Player News

Detroit’s Zach Miner won his fourth consecutive start Monday. His teammate Justin Verlander won four consecutive starts earlier this season (May 10-27). They are the first rookie teammates to win (at least) four consecutive starts since 1984, when two duos did it: Dwight Gooden and Ron Darling for the Mets and Roger Clemens and Al Nipper for the Red Sox. (Source: Elias)

The Marlins’ Josh Johnson has a 1.89 ERA in 10 starts this season. Over the last 20 years, only three other rookie pitchers have posted an ERA under 2.00 in their first 10 starts of a season: Zach Duke in 2005 (1.83), Cal Eldred in 1992 (1.26) and Pedro Astacio in 1992 (1.80). (Source: Elias)

Jason Giambi hit two home runs, giving him 10 multiple-home run games over the last calendar year, the most of any player in the major leagues over that time. (Source: Elias)

Joe Mauer was 4-for-5 with a double, triple and career-high five RBI in Monday’s game against the Dodgers. He has managed a .415 batting average, .495 on-base percentage and .585 slugging percentage in the month of June.

Darin Erstad, who is on the 15-day disabled list for the second time this season because of irritation in his right ankle, went back to his alma mater, the University of Nebraska, to see a doctor about his condition.

Rookie second baseman Dan Uggla remains hopeful that he’ll return this week, but there’s a chance he might not play until after the All-Star break.

Kerry Wood (shoulder) visited Dr. Tim Kremchek in Cincinnati on Monday. Kremchek operated on Wood’s shoulder last August. Wood threw a side session while hooked up to equipment for biomechanical analysis. “The MRI in Dr. Kremchek’s terms, stated it was pristine, that the labrum repair looked as if it was completely intact, looked like it had healed nicely and perfectly. He said his rotator cuff looks pristine, the joint looks good. So there is no significant concerns of any kind of significant issue or injury or anything like that,” trainer Mark O’Neal said.

Kevin Jarvis accepted an assignment to Triple-A Tucson on Monday after being designated for assignment last week.

The Reds’ official website reports Edwin Encarnacion (ankle) will begin a Triple-A rehab assignment in Louisville on Tuesday.

John Wasdin (thumb) came out of his Sunday rehab start feeling fine and if reports no problems in the coming days, he will start for the Rangers on Saturday, according to the Dallas Morning News.

According to reports, several teams have inquired about acquiring Devil Rays starter Mark Hendrickson. Holding up talks to this point has been the desire to ship Aubrey Huff’s contract away with the pitcher. No one is interested in taking on the struggling veteran.

Gary Sheffield has been back around his Yankee teammates this week and says his surgically repaired left wrist is healing faster than he expected.

Brad Radke (6-7, 5.40 ERA) is 2-1 with a 2.39 ERA in his past six starts, turning around the worst six-week start to a season in his career.

Curtis Granderson is adjusting to major league pitchers just as he did with hurlers in Double-A and Triple-A each of the previous two seasons. He started hot but cooled off this season, and his average was in the .260s earlier this month. In each of his previous two seasons, Granderson figured out how he was being pitched and countered at midseason, ending up with a good batting average.

Kerry Robinson, who was designated for assignment by the Kansas City Royals, cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Omaha.

Jay Gibbons (knee) had a setback in his recovery and is out until at least mid-July at this point.

THT’s Stats

Pitcher like groundballs and most hitters like to avoid them. While the difference between a flyball and a line drive is questionable, there’s very little debate about groundballs. In general, batters who avoid grounders will have higher slugging percentages but, as the following list shows, there’s no guarantee.

This is a list of the top twenty major league leaders in avoiding groundballs (least groundballs as a percent of total batted balls), including each player’s slugging percentage. As you can see, some players do hit balls in the air, but not very far. Milwaukee’s Brady Clark and Cleveland’s Aaron Boone are two prime examples.